Lent / Easter Special Events and Pilgrimages

The church is located at 2 South View Avenue, Reading RG4 5AB: click for a map.

The LMS Pilgrimage to Our Lady of Caversham usually coincides with the Ember Saturday of Lent. It is rare for the liturgy of any of the four Ember Saturdays to be celebrated with full solemnity, and that is what we do: High Mass with all the readings (there is also a 'short form' option).

There are five Prophecies (Old Testament readings), followed by the usual Epistle and Gospel. Each Prophecy is followed by a Gradual chant, except one which is followed by the wonderful Song of the Three Young Men from the Book of Daniel.

The Shrine chapel, where we had Missa Cantata in the earlier years of the LMS Pilgrimage.

Caversham is over the river Thames from Reading, and forms the southernmost tip of the Archdiocese of Birmingham. This the diocese's official Marian shrine, the restoration of a very ancient and prestigious medieval shrine, visited by many Kings and Queens of England including Catherine of Aragon, and dating probably from before the Norman Conquest. The restored shrine was consecrated in 1958, and the fine shrine image, a medieval Madonna and Child from northern Europe, was crowned by Papal mandate in 1996. (More on the shrine here.)

The church is located on Bridge End Street, Dorchester, OX10 7JR Click for a map

St Birinus' Church is stunning, one of the very few Catholic churches with a Rood Screen, lending an extra dimension to celebrations of the Traditional Mass. The church was built in the 1850s by architect William Wardell, a follower of Pugin, and has in recent years undergone extensive restoration and embellishment.